Comparative Analysis of The Book Thief and To Kill a Mockingbird

Running head: English Literature
English Literature
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Comparative report on The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and To Kill a Mockingbird by
Harper Lee.
Introduction
The study intends to do a comparative analysis on two literary works Markus Zusak’s
‘The Book Thief’ and Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Thus the study conducts a
thorough analysis over the two. The whole course of the discussion was from different angles
including context of the two books, target audience, genre, themes, language features and
stylistic techniques. Thus the purpose of the discussion is to conduct a close comparison between
two books. Towards the conclusion, the study sums up the entire discussion.
Context
Zusak in his novel “The Book Thief” portrays the picture of the socio-political condition
of the society during the World War II. The story of the novel talks about the human relationship
despite of the tumultuous condition during the period of war. “I wanted to tell the book thief
many things, about beauty and brutality” implies that the novel brings the cruelty of human
beings during the period of war; on the other hand it talks about humanity. The novel in this way
gives a sympathetic portrayal of German people in the time of World War II as implied by the
line. In his novel the Zusak gives a societal description and doing so he depicted how human
being during such hullabaloo, sympathise each other and most importantly loved each other.
While Zusak wrote the novel from a socio political context, Harper Lee in her novel 'To Kill a
Mockingbird' sheds the light on racial discrimination which can be seen in the lines: “You never
really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb
inside of his skin and walk around in it.” Racial discrimination which is a major issue of society
has been nicely highlighted in the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. While highlighting the issue,

Lee focuses on describing how the issue affects a human being who is to face discriminative
attitude from society.
Target audience and purpose
Both of the two novels have been penned down aiming to attract the attention of the
young adults. However, they are not limited to only that range of audience. Both of the novels
have been able to achieve popularity among the readers of all age groups. Lee wrote the novel
more than fifty years ago but it still holds relevancy in the present days. The novel has secured a
place among the school studies due to its moral and cultural significance. At the same time, at
the first glance it seems that the target audience of the novel ‘The Book Thief’ is the young
adults of German society. However, the novel’s author’s presentation of the then societal
condition was not only for the young adults of German society but it is written for a wider
audience base. Rather it can be said that the writer’s portrayal of humanity during World War II
is to the world. Through his novel Zusak attempted to shed light on how love, humanity can take
over cruelty whereas Lee’s attempt to write the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ intended to create
awareness among the readers regrading the ill practices in the society.
Genre conventions
Lee’s novel ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ which depicts the racial discrimination in society
falls under the genre of southern gothic fiction. The events of the story take place in South while
it includes the dark aspects of the society. Meanwhile, the story also consists of comic elements.
The most significant feature of the Southern gothic is the presence of supernatural element which
is seen to be present in the novel. For instance, the role of the ghost played in the novel 'To Kill a
Mockingbird' by one of the most important character Boo Radley. His name as well as his